On Wednesday, April 9th, 2014...Senate Republicans blocked legislation - The Paycheck Fairness Act - which would close the earnings gap between men and women. When will Republicans realize, understand and agree that women are equal - in every sense of the word - to men? Democratic Senator Harry Reid of Nevada - the Senate Majority Leader - stated in a floor speech..."For reasons known only to them...Senate Republicans don't seem to be interested in closing wage gaps for working women."Republican leaders attacked Democrats for accusing the GOP of being unsympathetic to women in the work force. Sorry, Republicans in Congress, but if it looks like a duck...walks like a duck...and quacks like a duck...it must be a duck.
According to WhiteHouse.gov...by age 65...the average woman in the United States will have lost $431,000.00 throughout the life of her business career...as a result of the earnings gap between males and females. And globally...on the ladder of gender equality...America ranks #23. That is despicable...humiliating...and shameful.
But why? Why is this issue still being discussed, debated and argued in the year 2014? Why is a woman - whether she is married or single - not being compensated equally...when she performs the same job being held by a man?
I have been accused by some of my readers as being "a liberal lunatic" and...for being to the "left of President Bill Clinton." I take that as one of the highest compliments anyone could give me. After all...President Clinton - in a February 21st, 2011 documentary special on MSNBC - was called "President of the World"...and in survey after survey...poll after poll...between 60 and 80 percent of Americans have stated...that if our Constitution permitted Bill Clinton to be elected to a third term as President of the United States...that they would vote for him. And...given those numbers...Mr. Clinton would win the Presidency again...and do so...in a landslide. So go ahead...compare me to President Bill Clinton...and make my day.But equal pay for women should in no way, shape, manner or form be a liberal issue or a conservative issue. In simple terms...equal pay for women... is right. For years now...studies have proven that girls outperform boys...in every level...from the 3rd grade on up. And research shows that the same applies for women over men. Also...statistics indicate there are more women today...in law school, in medical school, in dental school, in veterinary school and in pharmacy school...than men. Yet we still find an unfair disparity that women make - on average - 23 percent less money than men. And women of minority races earn even fewer dollars than that.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
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Once again you drink the Kool-Aid.
ReplyDeleteFrom: U.S. News 02.01.14
President Obama repeated the spurious gender wage gap statistic in his State of the Union address. “Today,” he said, “women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment.”
What is wrong and embarrassing is the President of the United States reciting a massively discredited factoid. The 23-cent gender pay gap is simply the difference between the average earnings of all men and women working full-time. It does not account for differences in occupations, positions, education, job tenure, or hours worked per week. When all these relevant factors are taken into consideration, the wage gap narrows to about five cents. And no one knows if the five cents is a result of discrimination or some other subtle, hard-to-measure difference between male and female workers. In its fact-checking column on the State of the Union, the Washington Post included the president’s mention of the wage gap in its list of dubious claims. “There is clearly a wage gap, but differences in the life choices of men and women… make it difficult to make simple comparisons.”
Consider, for example, how men and women differ in their college majors. Here is a list (PDF) of the ten most remunerative majors compiled by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Men overwhelmingly outnumber women in all but one of them:
1. Petroleum Engineering: 87% male
2. Pharmacy Pharmaceutical Sciences and Administration: 48% male
3. Mathematics and Computer Science: 67% male
4. Aerospace Engineering: 88% male
5. Chemical Engineering: 72% male
6. Electrical Engineering: 89% male
7. Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering: 97% male
8. Mechanical Engineering: 90% male
9. Metallurgical Engineering: 83% male
10. Mining and Mineral Engineering: 90% male
And here are the 10 least remunerative majors—where women prevail in nine out of ten:
1. Counseling Psychology: 74% female
2. Early Childhood Education: 97% female
3. Theology and Religious Vocations: 34% female
4. Human Services and Community Organization: 81% female
5. Social Work: 88% female
6. Drama and Theater Arts: 60% female
7. Studio Arts: 66% female
8. Communication Disorders Sciences and Services: 94% female
9. Visual and Performing Arts: 77% female
10. Health and Medical Preparatory Programs: 55% female
Much of the wage gap can be explained away by simply taking account of college majors. Early childhood educators and social workers can expect to earn around $36,000 and $39,000, respectively. By contrast, petroleum engineering and metallurgy degrees promise median earnings of $120,000 and $80,000. Not many aspiring early childhood educators would change course once they learn they can earn more in metallurgy or mining. The sexes, taken as a group, are somewhat different. Women, far more than men, appear to be drawn to jobs in the caring professions; and men are more likely to turn up in people-free zones. In the pursuit of happiness, men and women appear to take different paths.
When men and women do the same job with the same education background and hours worked the gap if any is less then 5%.
If I am - as you say - "drink(ing) the Kool-Aid"...then I am doing so with a beverage that is sweetened with truth and fact. For you to say that the gap in male wages versus female wages is only 5 percent is so laughable that it isn't even worth my time to respond. And as for college degrees - check your facts. More women earn a college degree than men. Obviously your Kool-Aid has been spiked by hallucinatory drugs that have impaired your means to clear thinking. GBD
ReplyDeleteother commenter didn't say anything about men earning more degrees than women... that has nothing to do with anything. you can't argue against their facts by bringing up some pointless comparison. if 10 million women earn a childhood education degree and 5 million men earn an engineering degree all the men will still rightfully be making more money than the women --- the only time this is relevant is when you are comparing people with exact same jobs. find a Fortune 100 company and review men vs women with the same position --- youll find that the pay is almost identical
ReplyDeleteSenator Elizabeth Warren - Democrat of Massachusetts - is a member of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Senator Warren writes on Credit.com and for ABC News the following.
Delete"When I started teaching elementary school after college, the public school district didn't hide the fact that it had two pay scales: one for men and one for women. Women have made incredible strides since then. But 40 years later, we’re still debating equal pay for equal work.
Women today still earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, and they’re taking a hit in nearly every occupation. Bloomberg analyzed Census data and found that median earnings for women were lower than those for men in 264 of 265 major occupation categories. In 99.6 percent of occupations, men get paid more than women. That’s not an accident; that’s discrimination. This should be a no-brainer. America’s women are tired of hearing that pay inequality isn’t real. We’re tired of hearing that it is somehow our fault, and we’re ready to fight back. We are not going to give up on passing the Paycheck Fairness Act to level the playing field for hardworking women in the workplace."
The complete article can be read at Credit.com and ABCNews.com. The facts remain - as I noted in my commentary above - that there is a pay gap between men and women. As my title states - EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN: IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. GBD